From the ’stan

Lt. Col. Brown (the commanding officer of CLB-24) sent this to me to share with y’all. Happy Mother’s Day!

I have been married to a wonderful woman for over twenty years. I was married before I entered the military and my wife and mother of my three children has lived the entire military spouse experience; base housing, moving from coast to coast and overseas, extended deployments, and trying to stretch a paycheck from one payday to the next. It didn’t go far when I was a Lance Corporal and a young Marine’s pay still doesn’t go very far today.

The global war on terrorism has made the job of a military spouse and mother even more trying. We are deployed much more often, for longer periods of time, and there are many, many more variables. Most deployments are to places where there are people whose sole ambition in life is to kill Americans. Against this backdrop, most marriages don’t last. Those that do are held together through the sheer will and determination of both participants. When kids are involved, our spouses bear the brunt of the work that goes with raising a family. Being a military spouse and mother is the only job where you knowingly sign up to live the life of a single parent. While the military sends us to the far reaches of the globe, they are left to explain to our children why we aren’t home, and how we can love them while at the same time love a life and job that sends us away from them. They have to put on a smile on the home front. They are left to do the work of two people, yet they still find time to manage the bills, shuffle kids to their different social/sporting events, and put a care package together.

If something tragic or just plain bad is going to happen, it will happen while we are deployed. They are the ones left to deal with clogged drain pipes, appliances that spontaneously catch fire, the death of pets, natural disasters, sickness, and later on… teens. They bear it all unflinchingly. Depending on where we are sent, we may or may not know what is going on in the world around us. We may not have access to current newspapers or see a television. They are bombarded by news media that does very little to assuage their anguish. We see very little. They see it all, and worry. If they are lucky, they have friends with whom they can talk, who understand and can help out. On the other end of the spectrum, they can find themselves on the front-end of a tour in a foreign country, as the “new person” and their spouse deployed for seven months to a year. They get no medals, no recognition, and no homecoming. The best most will get is an appreciative returning spouse. Compared to their job, we have it very, very easy.

I do not write this letter to place military spouses above others. Being a parent is hard, period. I would however, like to let those wives of service members, and especially those who have children, know just how much we appreciate them on this Mother’s Day.

Thank you to Gail Y. for posting these links! In case you haven’t seen them, here are two videos and a bunch of photos.
Sorry I haven’t been posting more, but I am in California and won’t be back in N.C. until tomorrow night. Hopefully I can get some more stuff up this coming week!

And more photos by Staff Sgt Piper are here.

Also, I wanted to say Happy Mother’s Day to all the military moms and spouses!

I got a new press release from the MEU today.
The Marines are still working to clear routes in Helmand province; however, they noted that everyone is supporting those operations, but not every Marine from the MEU is actually in Helmand province.
Here are some of the key developments they noted:

The Marines have discovered 9 caches. The caches contained variations of mines, rocket propelled grenades, mortars, and IED making materials.

Marines have identified and control detonated 4 IEDs.

The Marines have discovered and destroyed several fortified enemy positions.

On two occasions, Afghan citizens brought children to the Marines for medical treatment. The Marines provided medical care for and evacuated two children: one was an 11 year-old boy with abdominal wounds which his father said was inflicted by insurgents and one was a child with third degree burns from boiling water.

Leading up to operations in Garmsir, the Marines successfully ran more than 20 convoys up to distances of 100 miles. This was done across a land riddled with mines, IEDs and hostile terrain.

“The insurgents are finding that every time they engage with the Marines, they lose,” said Col. Peter Petronzio, commander of the 24th MEU. “The Marines are gaining ground every day and secure more of the routes through the district. The support we have received from our allied partners has contributed to our many successes thus far.”

Photos taken by Cpl. Andrew Carlson and Cpl. Alex Guerra

By JASON STRAZIUSO
Associated Press Writer
GARMSER, Afghanistan (AP) — The Marines of Bravo Company’s 1st Platoon sleep beside a grove of poppies. Troops in the 2nd Platoon playfully swat at the heavy opium bulbs while walking through the fields. Afghan laborers scraping the plant’s gooey resin smile and wave.
Last week, the 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit moved into southern Helmand province, the world’s largest opium poppy-growing region, and now find themselves surrounded by green fields of the illegal plants that produce the main ingredient of heroin.
The Taliban, whose fighters are exchanging daily fire with the Marines in Garmser, derives up to $100 million a year from the poppy harvest by taxing farmers and charging safe passage fees — money that will buy weapons for use against U.S., NATO and Afghan troops.
Yet the Marines are not destroying the plants. In fact, they are reassuring villagers the poppies won’t be touched. American commanders say the Marines would only alienate people and drive them to take up arms if they eliminated the impoverished Afghans’ only source of income.
Many Marines in the field are scratching their heads over the situation.
“It’s kind of weird. We’re coming over here to fight the Taliban. We see this. We know it’s bad. But at the same time we know it’s the only way locals can make money,” said 1st Lt. Adam Lynch, 27, of Barnstable, Mass.
The Marines’ battalion commander, Lt. Col. Anthony Henderson, said in an interview Tuesday that the poppy crop “will come and go” and that his troops can’t focus on it when Taliban fighters around Garmser are “terrorizing the people.”
“I think by focusing on the Taliban, the poppies will go away,” said Henderson, a 41-year-old from Washington, D.C. He said once the militant fighters are forced out, the Afghan government can move in and offer alternatives.
An expert on Afghanistan’s drug trade, Barnett Rubin, complained that the Marines are being put in such a situation by a “one-dimensional” military policy that fails to integrate political and economic considerations into long-range planning.
“All we hear is, not enough troops, send more troops,” said Rubin, a professor at New York University. “Then you send in troops with no capacity for assistance, no capacity for development, no capacity for aid, no capacity for governance.”
Most of the 33,000 U.S. troops in Afghanistan operate in the east, where the poppy problem is not as great. But the 2,400-strong 24th Marines, have taken the field in this southern growing region during harvest season.
In the poppy fields 100 feet from the 2nd Platoon’s headquarters, three Afghan brothers scraped opium resin over the weekend. The youngest, 23-year-old Sardar, said his family would earn little money from the harvest.
“We receive money from the shopkeepers, then they will sell it,” said Sardar, who was afraid to give his last name. “We don’t have enough money to buy flour for our families. The smugglers make the money,” added Sardar, who worked alongside his 11-year-old son just 20 yards from a Marine guard post, its guns pointed across the field.
Afghanistan supplies some 93 percent of the world’s opium used to make heroin, and the Taliban militants earn up to $100 million from the drug trade, the United Nations estimates. The export value of this harvest was $4 billion — more than a third of the country’s combined gross domestic product.
Though they aren’t eradicating poppies, the Marines presence could still have a positive effect. Henderson said the drug supply lines have been disrupted at a crucial point in the harvest. And Marine commanders are debating staying in Garmser longer than originally planned.
Second Lt. Mark Greenlief, 24, a Monmouth, Ill., native who commands the 2nd Platoon, said he originally wanted to make a helicopter landing zone in Sardar’s field. “But as you can see that would ruin their poppy field, and we didn’t want to ruin their livelihood.”
Sardar “basically said, ’This is my livelihood, I have to do what I can to protect that,”’ said Greenlief. “I told him we’re not here to eradicate.”
The Taliban told Garmser residents that the Marines were moving in to eradicate, hoping to encourage the villagers to rise up against the Americans, said 2nd Lt. Brandon Barrett, 25, of Marion, Ind., commander of the 1st Platoon.
In the next field over from Sardar’s, Khan Mohammad, an Afghan born in Helmand province who lives in Pakistan and came to work the fields, said he makes only $2 a day. He said the work is dangerous now that Taliban militants are shooting at the U.S. positions.
“We’re stuck in the middle,” he said. “If we go over there those guys will fire at us. If we come here, we’re in danger, too, but we have to work,” said the 54-year-old Mohammad, who supports a family of 10.
An even older laborer, his back bent by years of work, came over and told the small gathering of Afghans, Marines and journalists that the laborers had to get back to work “or the boss will get mad at us.”
Staff Sgt. Jeremy Stover, whose platoon is sleeping beside a poppy crop planted in the interior courtyard of a mud-walled compound, said the Marines’ mission is to get rid of the “bad guys,” and “the locals aren’t the bad guys.”
“Poppy fields in Afghanistan are the cornfields of Ohio,” said Stover, 28, of Marion, Ohio. “When we got here they were asking us if it’s OK to harvest poppy and we said, ’Yeah, just don’t use an AK-47.”’

(Associated Press photos)

More photos from Staff Sgt. Piper. I believe all these guys are in Charlie Company.

Master Sgt Rodney L. Abbott manning the turret in Garmsir

Jasmine’s husband sent these photos… he is with 1/6, Bravo Company.
I should also have some more photos later today from Staff Sgt. Piper — but they literally have to fly the photos in from where he is to the main base!







In the line for Tim Horton’s




These guys seem to have quite a supply of ammo…

… but they’re not hurting for candy, either!

The MEU’s new daddies are getting a chance to see their new babies for the first time today, via video teleconference (VTC in Marine-speak). Congratulations to all the mothers!

Just found out that the Marines discovered four more caches this afternoon. The caches contained land mines, rocket propelled grenades, IED making materials and mortars, according to Capt. Frushour.
Those discoveries were part of the ongoing route-clearing operation in southern Helmand province.

Also, here is more video from NBC (The link was provided by RCook, thank you!)

By JASON STRAZIUSO
Associated Press Writer
GARMSER, Afghanistan (AP) — Gunfire zings in near Sgt. Dan Linas’ patrol, pinning his squad down against a dirt berm. The Marines peer across the field to their left, at three mud huts and a grove of trees, searching for the muzzle flash. Then they cut loose with their M-16s.
The sun is barely up, but for the men of Bravo Company’s 2nd Platoon, the firefight proves just the first in a series of skirmishes Friday that will see Marines unleash earsplitting barrages of machine gun fire, mortars and artillery, most of which land just 600 yards away.
To the east, north and south lie bountiful fields of opium poppies, to the west an unseen enemy.
Airstrikes and artillery have thundered around this southern Afghan town all week, since several companies of the 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit took the offensive before dawn Tuesday and swept into Garmser, which sits in Taliban territory where no NATO troops had ventured.
The British military is responsible for Helmand Province, but its 7,500 soldiers, along with 2,500 Canadian troops in neighboring Kandahar, hasn’t been enough manpower to tame Afghanistan’s south. So the 2,400-strong 24th Marines have come to help.
The push into Garmser is their first mission since arriving from the U.S. last month, and it is the farthest south that American troops have been in several years. Most of the 33,000 U.S. troops in Afghanistan operate along the border with Pakistan.
Some of the men in the 24th Marines have seen combat in the toughest parts of Iraq, and their commanders hope that experience will help calm the Taliban insurgency in Afghanistan.
British forces are mainly in the northern part of Helmand, which is the world’s biggest producer of opium poppies. Britain has an outpost on Garmser’s northern outskirts, but NATO has had no presence south of that.
The Marines in Garmser do not plan a long stay. They will leave the poppy fields be. Their only mission is to open the road for a Marine convoy that will move through town. They sit and defend the 10-foot-wide lane of dirt.
After returning fire from the berm across the empty field, the men under Linas — a 21-year-old from Richmond, Va. — jog 100 yards to the platoon command center, where Marines in the lookout post provide covering machine-gun fire.
The platoon mortar team then dials in coordinates and fires off shells in high arcs toward the suspected location of Taliban fighters, throwing up puffs of smoke in the field. There is no way to tell if any militants are hit.
In the foreground, perhaps 40 yards from the Marines’ post, a half dozen Afghan men work in their illegal poppy fields, slicing the bulbs to coax out opium resin that will be used to make heroin. They look up as the mortars boom out, then go back to work.
The 24th Marines served in 2006 and 2007 in Ramadi, capital of Anbar province in western Iraq. The vast region was al-Qaida in Iraq’s stronghold before the militants were pushed out in early 2007.
Compared with the dense population centers where they fought in Iraq, Marine artillery and mortar teams have much more freedom to fire in the open spaces of rural Afghanistan, where the Taliban operate.
But before more mortars are fired, 2nd Lt. Mark Greenleaf, the 24-year-old platoon commander from Monmouth, Ill., asks his observers if any civilians are in danger. “What’s the collateral damage beyond the tree line?” he barks.
The expanse to the Marine post’s west has been empty for days, even as farmers have worked with their poppy plants in all other directions — an indication the Taliban have a heavy presence to the west. But the company commander, Capt. Charles O’Neill, decides he’s not interested in an all-day mortar battle with the insurgents.
Mere moments later, the Marines hear the whoosh of a rocket being fired in the distance. Everyone rushes for cover, pushing themselves up against mud walls or down into trenches. The boom of exploding missile rattles the outpost but it’s a couple hundred yards off target.
A wave of gunfire rings out as Marines react, until sergeants shout for the men to cease fire. One Marine infantryman with a team still on the berm states the obvious: “They missed.”
But Lance Cpl. Matthew Cato of Simpsonville, S.C., 21, says: “I don’t care, it scared the … out of me.”
“I hate hearing those things go off because then you’re just sitting here going, ’Oh, man,”’ adds Cpl. Keith Manley, 23, of Ilion, N.Y.
The heat of the noon sun settles in. Marines — and militants — put down their weapons and hunker down in any shade they can find.
The countryside stays quiet until a convoy of Humvees pulls up in midafternoon to evacuate a Marine with a badly swollen ankle from a sprain. As soon as the Humvees stop, incoming fire starts up.
The gunner atop one Humvee opens fire with his .50-caliber machine gun, and Marines with M-16s also blaze away. After several minutes of heavy gunfire, which kicks up clouds of fine sand that sift down on the Marines, squad leaders yell for their men to conserve ammo.
“If there’s too much … smoke to see the target, then don’t waste the rounds,” yells Sgt. Chris Battaglia, 28.
An artillery post outside town then joins the skirmish, sending round after round exploding only 600 yards away. Marines yell for everyone to stay down, in a case a shell falls short.
O’Neill, the company commander, says all-day potshots by Taliban fighters are little more than nuisance attacks. The militants use binoculars and have forward observers with cell phones to try to aim better at the Marines, he says.
“This is pure asymmetric harassment,” he says. “They’ll pop out of a position and fire a rocket or mortar.”
The Marines don’t move into the field to take on the Taliban at close range. Their mission is to open the road that goes through Garmser, and nothing more. NATO troops are not authorized to eradicate poppy crops, and the Marines have assured farmers their fields won’t be touched.
At the end of the day, no Marines are hurt or wounded. The Taliban casualty count is not known. But the Marines living in the mud-hut compound under Greenleaf are buzzing from a day filled with adrenaline.
“I thought it was fun,” says Cato. “I know I’m doing my job. It’s just a good feeling.”






Lt. Greenleaf

All photos courtesy of the Associated Press

Brittany sent me this photo of her husband and friends before the Toby Keith concert.


Also, found a story in USA Today, not sure if y’all have seen it.
Update: Found this video story from NBC Nightly News. Not sure if it is the same one some other people saw on the Today show?

Got these photos this morning, but I couldn’t post them from home because they were too big! All were taken by Staff Sgt. Robert Piper (or, as I like to call him, Roger).


You can see what I mean about it being the “Green Zone” in this picture

I got this update on operations this morning. Sorry I didn’t post it earlier, I am off today so I overslept a little (OK, actually a lot!)

Marines are still clearing areas of the Garmsir district. They have captured a series of identified enemy strong points and defensive positions south of the Task Force Helmand forward operating bases and are opening routes that were previously closed through Garmsir to the economically vital Helmand green zone, spokeswoman Capt. Kelly Frushour said in an e-mail.

Unlike the “Green Zone” in Iraq, which refers to a protected area that houses the U.S. Embassy and much of the Iraqi government in Baghdad, Afghanistan’s Green Zone is quite literally that — a stretch of green vegetation and poppy fields along the Helmand River. The area still has a heavy Taliban presence.

The Marines have encountered “light, disorganized resistance in the form of small arms and indirect fire and rocket propelled grenades,” according to the press release. No Marines were injured.

“I think the most telling aspect is an Afghan citizen of Garmsir had no qualms about bringing his wounded child to a newly established Marine position where Marines were heavily armed,” said Col Peter Petronzio, Commanding Officer, 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit. “Here is a man who has first-hand experience of life under the Taliban. He knows that with them there is no offer of hope, no plan and no future. He knows we are here to help.”

We ran this AP photo in our paper today, I couldn’t find it elsewhere online, but I thought you’d enjoy it.


Also got a couple of photos from Courtney. This one is of the CLB’s supply guys.


And of Courtney’s husband giving another Marine a haircut!

Just wanted to let y’all know we are going to have an AP story and photo(s) about the 24th MEU’s operations last night in tomorrow’s Daily News. It is written by Jason Straziuso.

The Marines of the 24th MEU started operations in the Garmsir District of Helmand province at about 11:30 p.m. April 28, according to a press release from spokeswoman Capt. Kelly Frushour.
The Marines are working to secure routes through the district center to “enable the extension of the government of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan,” Frushour said.
In the first few hours of the operation, the Marines did not face any opposition. Late Tuesday morning, they “encountered light resistance,” in the form of small arms fire and rocket-propelled grenades from buildings along the routes they are working to secure, Frushour said.
During the course of the operation, the Marines found a weapons cache of RPGs and IED-making materials in a building, Frushour said.
Navy medical personnel were also able to help a young boy who was wounded by insurgent fire. Afghan citizens brought the boy to the Marines at about 11 a.m. Wednesday with an injury to his abdomen, and he was taken to a medical site for treatment.

Press release from the 24th MEU: (I will be working to follow up on this in the morning)

HELMAND PROVINCE, Afghanistan (APR 29) – Marines with the 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit and the British forces of Task Force Helmand launched an operation in Southern Helmand Province last night (April 28).

The goal of this cooperative operation is to enhance the security for the Afghan citizens of Garmsir District, Helmand Province. This will be accomplished by engaging with the leaders of Garmsir to determine what is required to bring stability to their district – a district which has seen little International Security Assistance Force presence in the recent past.

Marines and Sailors of the 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit launched their portion of the operation from forward staging areas in Helmand. They pushed out from Kandahar Province into Southern Helmand over the past week. The Marines moved via ground convoys and air lift.

The 2,400-strong Marine unit is conducting operations in support of NATO’s International Security Assistance Force. The MEU is a Theater Task Force, a position which allows the commander of ISAF to rapidly deploy the MEU wherever it’s needed to conduct full-spectrum operations from humanitarian assistance missions to combat operations.

Click here to read the AP story and see photos (click on the photo on the top left and scroll through some of them… there are numerous pics of the MEU). Thanks to Cathy for the link!

Thank you, Cathy, for these links!
Here is the story I was talking about.

Unfortunately it doesn’t have the photo we had used in our paper. And there is another photo in the paper today (no story, though). I do love the one of the water bottles coming down from the sky, though!

Also, a cool video story from NBC Nightly News.

I don’t know if you saw it today, but there was an AP story about the MEU in The Daily News. I will see if I can track it down to post here for those who missed it.
Also, I got some photos from Sarah of some guys from the CLB’s engineer platoon.

Toby Keith performed last night at the boardwalk at the base in Afghanistan. The concert was delayed an hour because of a rocket attack — my husband said the Taliban must not like country music!
I’m trying to get some more photos, but here is one. And the spots in the photo are not snowflakes — it’s sand.

Tammy sent in this photo of the MEU’s “4 shop” (logistics), sent to her by her husband.
Thanks!


Also, some of you have asked about other blogs from reporters embedded with the MEU or with 2/7. I don’t know who is with 2/7, but there are reporters from the AP, NBC, Fox News and USA Today embedded with various parts of the MEU, and David Wood from the Baltimore Sun is still there, at least for a little longer. His blog is here.

A picture of some ACE guys this time, from Elizabeth. Her brother is part of this medical team.

By JASON STRAZIUSO
Associated Press Writer

CAMP BASTION, Afghanistan (AP) — More than 100 Marines stood at attention before four empty boots and two sets of dog tags to honor the first Marines to die in Afghanistan since their North Carolina-based unit’s deployment last month.

1st Sgt. Luke J. Mercardante, 35, and Cpl. Kyle W. Wilks, 24, died in a roadside bomb explosion in the Panjwayi district of Kandahar province on April 15, said Lt. Col. Ricky Brown, the commander of Combat Logistics Battalion 24, 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit, based at Camp Lejuene, N.C.

Dark, overcast skies, a blustery wind and light droplets of rain on Tuesday reflected the ceremony’s mood. Navy Petty Officer 1st Class Tom Nagy, a medical officer attached to the Marine unit, read from a letter Mercardante wrote to his sister.

“I want no person to ever feel sad or pity for me or my Marines as we endure hardship and sacrifice, as this is our calling with the unknown outcome being that of God’s master plan,” Nagy quoted Mercardante as writing.

The attack came during the Marines’ first movement outside NATO’s main southern base at Kandahar and hit Mercardante, the battalion’s top noncommissioned officer, Brown said.

“It was our first convoy outside the gate, and everyone looked up to 1st Sgt. Mercardante. Short of Col. Brown, it couldn’t have hit anyone more dear to the unit,” Nagy said after the ceremony.

Roadside and suicide bomb attacks have spiked in the last several years, as Taliban insurgents increase the use of what military officials call “asymmetric” attacks. In late 2006, the Taliban suffered hundreds of casualties in major battles in Panjwayi — where the roadside bomb went off — and have avoided force-on-force confrontations ever since.

The two deaths bring to 18 the number of American troops killed in Afghanistan this year, according to an Associated Press tally. Last year, 111 U.S. troops were killed in Afghanistan. About 3,500 Marines were deployed to Afghanistan last month to help the 40-nation mission battle the Taliban insurgency. The U.S. now has 32,000 troops in the country.

Mercardante, of Athens, Georgia, and Wilks, of Rogers, Arkansas, were riding in a Humvee, the fourth vehicle of a 36-vehicle convoy, Brown said. A militant monitoring the main highway set the device off, he said.

April sent me this photo about a week or so ago, her fiance sent it to her. Sorry I did not post it sooner.

Thanks, April!

Also, some of you have asked about whether I am still in Afghanistan and whether I can take more photos of specific things (guys from a certain unit, etc). I am back in the U.S. now, but am keeping up with what the MEU is doing and will be keeping the blog up throughout the deployment.
Please feel free to send me photos you have gotten from your loved ones (send to my e-mail: jhlad@freedomenc.com), so I can share them with everyone. And I can ask my husband or other Marines there to take specific types of photos, if you ask. I just can’t guarantee they’ll do it!

Something weird has happened that I need to address.

A lot of wonderful people have made some awesome comments on this blog, but apparently someone is trying to use some of the information in a completely inappropriate way. Someone called a young wife, claiming to be a key volunteer, and said her husband was missing in Afghanistan. That was completely false, but this poor woman had to go through thinking her husband was missing and trying to figure out what was going on.

I am not sure how they got specific information about this woman and her husband, but regardless, please try to keep personal information (such as full names of yourself or your husband/son/daughter, or platoon information) in comments to a minimum. Anything you want to e-mail directly to me is fine, but if you post something on the comment section, be aware that everyone in the world can read that information and use it to their advantage. That doesn’t mean you can’t say first names or more general unit information (such as 1/6, CLB, etc), but just don’t provide everything.

Also, the MEU is working on some information so you know the process that occurs if there is a casualty. But I can tell you this: If something does happen to your loved one, someone will come to your house and tell you. You will not get an e-mail or phone call in the middle of the night from someone you do not know (even if they claim to be a KV) if your husband or child is injured, missing or dead — though, if the Marine or sailor is able to speak, you may get a phone call from them directly.

The MEU had a memorial service this morning for 1st Sgt. Luke Mercardante and Cpl. Kyle Wilks. These photos were taken at the service by Cpl. Randall Clinton.

UPDATE: To read the story from today’s Daily News, click here.

The Department of Defense has officially released the names of the two Marines killed April 15: 1st Sgt. Luke J. Mercardante and Cpl. Kyle W. Wilks. The official press release from Camp Lejeune is here: read release
There are quite a few very nice comments about 1st Sgt. Mercardante on the post named “update.” And as I mentioned, I am working on a story about these men, but I wanted to go ahead and share a quote provided by e-mail from the CLB’s executive officer, Maj. Keith Owens:

“This is the kind of blow you never expect and can never forget. We lost two great Marines, who were our brothers, and friends. But we will carry on, we will continue the mission and do our part. A new day will rise and CLB-24 will go on,” he said.

The Department of Defense has still not released the names, but since this article has been published (written by my former colleague at the Athens Banner-Herald, coincidently) and I have talked to his girlfriend, I thought it was important to go ahead and let you know.
One of the men killed in the April 16 IED blast was 1st Sgt. Luke Mercardante, the sergeant major for CLB 24. You can read his official bio here, and it is quite obvious that he was an awesome Marine. I met him only briefly — we discussed the Univ. of Georgia Bulldogs — but I am working on a story about him and the other Marines so that everyone will know who these men were and how much they are all missed.
I especially liked this quote from Joe’s story, which 1st Sgt. Mercardante’s sister said he wrote in an e-mail to family: “I want no person to ever feel sad or pity for me or my Marines as we endure hardship and sacrifice, as this is our calling, with the unknown outcome being that of God’s master plan.”

2nd update: The hometown newspaper of the other Marine who was killed also wrote a story. You can read it here.

I have some extremely sad news to report this morning. Most of you have probably already heard, but on April 16, two Marines were killed and two were wounded when the vehicle they were riding in hit an IED (improvised explosive device).
There is some conflicting information about whether or not I can release the names, so I am not going to, yet. But I can tell you that if you have not heard anything, please do not worry. You would have already heard if your Marine was one of those four.
To the families and loved ones of the men who were involved, I do not know what to say except that you are in all of our thoughts and prayers.
And thank you to all the families and to all the Marines and sailors for everything that you do every day.

Here are some more photos sent by Danielle’s husband!

On the flight over


Inside a tent at northside


As requested, a photo with a face




northside from a different point of view


Not sure exactly where on base this was taken, but it shows you a little of what it is like to walk around on the lovely dirt roads